When Ted Cruz announced his candidacy for USA president at Liberty University yesterday, many students in the audience used the Smartphone app Yik Yak to mock the junior senator from Texas (and to complain that they were coerced to attend the event by the university). Yik Yak gives users the opportunity to interact anonymously with other users within a ten-mile radius. The tone of the messages run the gamut; many are vile indeed (no examples needed here); others are requests for advice (“where’s a good place for lesbians to drink on Granville Street?”); and others are semi-amusing insults (“Things I love more than you: burritos”). I will keep this app on my iPhone for a few days to find out if there is anything I find there that I can’t find elsewhere. If so, it stays. I have my doubts.

Another recent addition to my iPhone will stay there a long time: Meerkat, a very simple live-streaming application; I have been looking for something like this for a long time. My first project: Live-streaming (some of) my Kwantlen classes.